Busy Day Pork Chops

4-8  pork chops
2 Tablespoons   Worcestershire sauce
1 Cup  Ketchup
2 Cans  Chicken Gumbo Soup
1/2 Cups  Brown Sugar

Put uncooked chops in roasting pan (I use a 9x13). In a bowl mix soup, ketchup and worcestershire sauce together to make a rich sauce. Pour over chops and bake at 300 degrees for 3 hours.

* Serve over rice or with a baked potato.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I know this blog is supposed to be for dinner ideas... but these are the best cookies in the entire world. Trust me, they're tasty. Unless you don't like peanut butter... then I guess these aren't for you...

You'll need:
Mini muffin tin
1 bag mini peanut butter cups

For the cookie dough:
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. baking soda

Make the cookie dough. Put a spoonful into the mini muffin tin -- like so:

Spread out so you can put in the (unwrapped) Reeces cups.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. They'll look a little doughy when you take them out, but they need a minute to cool before you can get them out of the pan, and they'll keep cooking while they're cooling. Trust me, they're divine. Enjoy!

Yumbo Gumbo

PER SERVING (1/5th of recipe, about 1 cup): 133 calories, 1.25g fat, 710mg sodium, 14g carbs, 2.5g fiber, 7g sugars, 17g protein -- POINTS® value 2*
This soup is packed with shellfish and tons of tasty items -- but no rice. Trust us, you won't miss it for a SECOND...
Ingredients:
One 14.5-oz. can stewed tomatoes (not drained)
8 oz. peeled and deveined raw medium shrimp with tails removed
8 oz. white crab meat (about two 6-oz. cans drained)
1 cup Spicy Hot V8 vegetable juice
1 cup frozen cut okra
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. Cajun seasoning, or more to taste
1 tsp. Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce, or more to taste
black pepper, to taste
Directions: Bring a large pot sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat. Add bell peppers and onion. Stirring occasionally, cook for about 3 minutes, until tender. Add tomatoes, V8 juice, and cornstarch. Stir well, making sure cornstarch dissolves completely. Cook until mixture begins to bubble. Add okra, Cajun seasoning, and Frank's RedHot. Stir and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add shrimp, and continue to simmer until shrimp are cooked through, about 3 - 4 minutes. Add crab meat and 3/4 cup water. Raise heat to medium, and return to a boil. Remove pot from heat, cover, and let thicken for 5 minutes. Season to taste with black pepper. If you like, add a little more Cajun seasoning and Frank's RedHot. Enjoy! MAKES 5 SERVINGS

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Man, people are really slacking on posting on this blog (and by "people", I mean me!) Here's a really easy and delicious recipe for bbq chicken sandwiches.

4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup ketchup
2 T mustard
2 t lemon juice
1/4 t garlic powder
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t chili powder
1/8 t cayenne pepper

Place chicken breasts into the bottom of a slow cooker. In seperate bowl, stir together remaining ingredients (*I always forget to do this-- I just throw everything into the crock pot*) Pour the sauce over the chicken, set cooker to low and cook for 6 hours. Shred the chicken with 2 forks and cook for 30 more minutes. Serve on hamburger buns.

Grandma Roy's Creamy Chicken Soup

2 chicken breasts
3 carrots diced
2 onions, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 1/2 cup celery, chopped
water to cover
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour

In large kettle, place chicken, carrots, onions, parsley and celery. Add water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer 45-50 minutes or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken and vegetables and boil liquid until you have 3 cups* remaining. Stir in milk. In a bowl, cream butter and flour into a paste. Stir into water and milk. Simmer and stir over low heat until soup bubbles and thickens. Dice or shred the cooled chicken and return it and vegetables to the soup.

*Before adding the milk, flour and butter, you can freeze half of the soup to use next time. If so, half the milk to 1 1/2 cups, the butter to 1/4 cup and the flour to 1/4 cup. With the frozen half, just thaw and warm then add milk, butter and flour.

Raspberry Pretzel Salad

This is soo good enjoy!

Bottom Layer:

1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
1/2 cup sugar
1 cube (1/2 cup) butter, melted

Mix and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Put into the oven at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Let this cool off completely.

Middle Layer:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
8 oz. cool whip

Mix together. Spread this over the pretzels. Refrigerate until cool.

Top Layer:

6 oz. raspberry jello
2 cups boiling water
1 bag unsweetened raspberries

Dissolve jello in the water and then add the raspberries. Pour over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set.

*You can use strawberries instead of raspberries. This is great for bbq's, Thanksgiving, special events, etc.

Morning protein shake

I know Sarah posted a request forever ago about smoothie recipes. Well, I'm just starting to enter the breakfast club ... aka for the first time in my life I'm really making an effort to eat breakfast every day. I'm also following a suggestion from Sarah's wise, wise, wise husband to add some whey protein to my diet. Enter the morning razzmatazz.


Clearly I start with the blender.


I toss in some drinkable yogurt (yes, I know all yogurt is drinkable) -- I go for the raspberry. Blend with orange juice (pulp-free for me, please), frozen fruit (raspberries and peaches) and a scoop of whey protein. And then, the secret ingredient -- a couple of Oreos to mask the whey protein taste. (Hey, three Oreos has 10 percent of my daily allowance of iron, which is something I'm always low on. I count it as healthy.)


Blend it all on up and gulp away. When I have some avocado handy I toss that in, too, but that's another story for another day ...